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Covering Sprawl, Science, and Chickens

April 15, 2013

Media on the Move

Plus Speeches, Awards and New Jobs

Editor’s Note: The “Media on the Move” column is on the move. SEJournal’s “Media on the Move” has tracked the comings and goings of SEJ members since 2004. Now, nearly a decade later, with a vibrant SEJ website in place, providing faster, easier ways to share what members are doing, “Media on the Move” is shifting forums. This issue will be the last in which the column appears in its current form in print. Beginning this spring, SEJournal editors will work with the website staff to create an easy-to-use online form that will allow members themselves to offer updates on their doings, as well as provide links to their latest work, social networks and member profiles. “Media on the Move” Editor Judy Fahys of the Salt Lake Tribune (fahys@sltrib.com) will continue to review and regularly publish those online updates, as well as explore ways to expand some of the most important and interesting member developments for deeper exploration in the SEJournal. Check the website for more information, and as always, let us know of your achievements, shifts in direction, if you’ve got a new job or sold a new project.

SEJ members continued to land intriguing and important gigs, even with the ongoing turmoil in the news industry.

One example is Seattle-based Francesca Lyman, who received a Fund for Environmental Journalism grant to write about suburbia’s future. She travelled to Sacramento, Calif., to chronicle sprawl in the state whose culture, with its palm-lined boulevards, big lawns and swimming pools, raised suburban living to an art form. There, though, the latest “burst of the housing bubble has exposed the dark underside of the suburban dream, with its cascading foreclosures, shuttered malls and shopping centers — on an enormous scale.” Her article, published in the Sacramento Bee, explored whether housing developers should concentrate on building out on undeveloped ‘greenfields’ or focus on urban infill projects and walkable neighborhoods. See the article here.

Mark Schleifstein continued coping with dramatic change at his media outlet. Last fall, The Times-Picayune moved to a three-day-a-week print publication, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with a special sports tab home-delivered on non-publication days after New Orleans Saints games. The news staff, except those involved in actual publication of the print edition, now report for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on the web, 24/7. The web staff moved to a new location on the 32nd floor atop the One Canal Place building overlooking the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans in January.

After 35 years of reporting for Science News magazine, Janet Raloff has been named the first full-time editor of its decade-old sister publication, Science News for Kids. The free, award-winning online publication — aimed at middle-school students — is growing both in readership (quite international) and copy flow. Meanwhile, Raloff hasn’t given up writing for Science News entirely. Of the five features that she brought back from her NSF-sponsored reporting trip to Antarctica last December, the first appears in Science News (on Mt. Erebus — the planet’s southernmost active volcano).

Christie Aschwanden is the new managing editor at The Open Notebook, which strives to tell the stories behind science reporting. She develops content, assigning stories and selecting outstanding writers to feature on the site, and invites pitches: christie@theopennotebook.com. Christie continues to freelance and to blog at LastWordOnNothing.com. And you can find her on twitter @cragcrest.

Two of John Platt’s articles about endangered species are reprinted in the new Scientific American eBook, “A Look Back: The Best of 2012.”

The second edition of Christine Heinrichs’ “How to Raise Chickens” sold out its first printing before it got to bookshelves. A second printing was made available in February. The latest edition focuses on raising standard and traditional breeds in small flocks.

Tom Henry of The (Toledo) Blade was the keynote speaker on Nov. 2, 2012 for the University of Toledo College of Law’s 12th annual Great Lakes water-law conference, one of the Great Lakes region’s largest and best-known. His speech, four days before the election, focused on how President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney avoided climate change and other environmental issues during their campaigns. Tom learned after 1.5 years of editorial writing he missed reporting more than he thought he would. He returned to the newsroom in mid-February.

Sarah Watson was named full-time environmental reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and is focusing much of her time reporting on Hurricane Sandy recovery in southern New Jersey.

Katherine Murray is the new publications coordinator for Quaker Earthcare Witness, a network of Friends (Quakers) in North America and other like-minded people who are seeking to address the ecological and social crises of the world from a spiritual perspective. Katherine sends out thanks to Muriel Strand for posting the job announcement on the SEJ members’ listserv, SEJ-Talk.